Fibre channel (FC) is a high-speed serial interconnection interface, which is used in various storage and networking applications. FC has been standardized by working group T11 of the International Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS). FC standards are available at www.t11.org.
Some FC standards and drafts define the transport of FC traffic over different backbone networks. For example, the Fibre Channel Backbone 3 (FC-BB-3) draft, version 7.0, published by task group T11.3 of the INCITS, Jan. 17, 2006, which is incorporated herein by reference, defines the functions and mappings necessary to tunnel fibre channel links, or bridge fibre channel networks, across wide area networks (WAN). This document describes mapping models of FC to Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), Synchronous Optical Network (SONET), Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and Transparent Generic Framing Procedure (GFP-T).
Methods for carrying FC traffic over IP networks are also described by Rajagopal et al. in an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Request for Comments (RFC) 3821, entitled “Fibre Channel over TCP/IP (FCIP),” July, 2004, which is incorporated herein by reference. The FCIP mechanisms allow the interconnection of islands of FC storage area networks over IP-based networks to form a .unified storage area network in a single FC fabric. This RFC, as well as other IETF RFCs cited hereinbelow, is available at www.ietf.org/rfc.